The lawyers of Sean "Diddy" Combs are currently fighting his appeal against his prostitution-related conviction. On Thursday, April 9th, at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro pleaded with the three-judge panel to reduce Combs' 50-month sentence, stating that it was imperative "to ensure that 'not guilty' truly means 'not guilty'," as reported by ABC News.
In court filings, Combs' attorneys argued that the trial judge "refused to uphold the jury's verdict" by considering conduct for which Combs had been acquitted when deciding his sentence, as reported by CNN. Combs' lawyers have also argued in court filings that videos depicting sexual encounters known as "freak-offs," which were central to the prosecution's case, amounted to "amateur pornography" protected by the First Amendment, according to reports from Associated Press, CNN, and ABC News. They claimed that the law's definition of "prostitution" should only apply when a paying customer has sex with the person being paid, as reported by CNN.
Prosecutors have dismissed these claims as "unfounded," stating that Combs "hired and transported commercial sex workers to have sex with his girlfriends for his own sexual gratification, sometimes participating directly himself," per court filings cited by CNN. They also argued that the judge properly considered the treatment of the women when determining Combs' sentence. "According to Combs, the district court should have ignored how he carried out his Mann Act offenses and abused his victims - violently beating them, threatening them, lying to them, and plying them with drugs," prosecutors wrote in court filings, as previously reported by PEOPLE.
The 56-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records is currently serving his sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, a federal facility located on a military base about 40 miles outside Philadelphia. He was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution, but was acquitted of more serious charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which could have carried a life sentence.
Combs' lawyers formally appealed the conviction last December, arguing that the encounters were consensual and that the trial judge imposed an excessively harsh sentence. Federal prosecutors countered in February, describing him as a repeat offender who used threats and violence, according to previously obtained court documents by PEOPLE.
No decision was announced following Thursday's roughly two-hour hearing, according to reports. Combs is now scheduled for release on April 15th, 2028.
